Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Weighing In On My Fitness Goals

I am trying not to set myself up for disappointment by not
putting too many expectations on 2014.
Up until 2007, I’d never been unemployed for longer than a few months
and here I am, nearly 6 years later, with a new certification under my belt, I
still have no job. I can’t make a
resolution saying I’ll make more money or have a job because these things are
somewhat beyond my control. I can put
myself and my skills out there and only sit back and hope someone will offer me
some money.

The same holds true for my weight. I was exercising between 2 and 3 hours a day
and I wasn’t losing any weight. I eat
well, measure portions, don’t go in for fad diets, and yet I gain and gain and
gain some more. I am officially at the
highest weight of my life except when I was pregnant . . . with twins. Even when I gave birth to my daughter, I
didn’t weigh as much as I do now.

So my goal this year is not to necessarily lose weight. Instead, I am going to focus on tracking my
exercise and my diet. I know I need to
eat more calories but trying to do so and maintain a balanced diet (45-65%
carbs, 10-35% protein, 20-35% fat) is nearly impossible unless I go out of my
way to eat when I do not feel hungry. I’m
going to try to eat enough calories but not force myself to eat when I’m not
hungry. I’m thinking of eating more lean
protein, even drinking protein shakes, in an attempt to hit my goal without
having to eat piles of food. I love
vegetables so much that I could eat piles of them but I’d never reach my
caloric goal before feeling bloated and stuffed. After all, my doctor and the nutritionist she
had working with me both said that I wasn’t getting enough calories.

Yes, this means I’ll be tracking the foods I eat. I’ve tried doing this online (SparkPeople,
LiveStrong, and, most recently, MyFitnessPal) and I think I’m just going to use
pen and paper, transferring the week’s food into a database in one
sitting. Yes it will take time but not
more time than logging in and out at every meal. Since I’ll have my planner with me all of the
time, tracking things manually should be easier. And I won’t try to hit my caloric goal on day
one. I’ll need to build up to knowing
what I need to eat to reach my target.

According to calorieking.com, I need to eat 1350-1550
calories a day.

According to freedieting.com, I should eat between 1432 and
1654 calories a day.

And myfitnesspal.com puts me at 1444 calories a day.

I eat about 1000, so I need to eat another nearly 50% and,
seriously, I’m not hungry enough for that.
And it’s easier for me to eat a hard boiled egg than seven cups of
spinach. Same number of calories. Just less filling so maybe, just maybe, I can
reach my target with a little more focus on protein and less on vegetables.

My biggest obstacle while exercising is how tedious I find
strength training. I have tried everything I know to make it more interesting
and failed every step of the way. My
last attempt was to not worry about making it something I’d enjoy (instead of
boring) and just make it a daily habit—lower body M-W-F, lower body the other
days, with Sundays off. Still didn’t
work. I would claim to be too busy and
never make time for it. So in my planner
I will track my exercise and schedule doing a full body strength training
workout twice a week, Monday and Thursday, which I hope I can eventually build
up to thrice a week.

Cardio isn’t a problem.
Walking the dogs ensures a one mile walk every day. Even when it rains, I use walking DVDs. I also enjoy doing yoga and Pilates, both of
which help work my core and provide some strength training. Only, now we have a new dog hanging around
and I’m not sure how well she will handle my trying to do anything on my yoga
mat. I remember when Snowdoll first
arrived and how it took me a while before she understood my yoga mat is off
limits. For this reason, I’ve decided to
do some qigong for which I won’t need my yoga mat while also using my mat at
other times so that she can learn it is not for her to lie down on or chew up
or any of the other things Holly seems to think all things are for around
here. Eventually she will become
accustomed to seeing it without assuming she should claim it for her own.

Anyway, I can always find/make time for cardio and yoga but
I hardly ever try for strength training.
I also need to start thinking about adding agility training, something I
hadn’t considered before. In the coming
weeks you’ll see my post about my progress, the activities I accomplish, the
caloric goals reached. Okay. Maybe not the
first week. Maybe not the second. But I’m thinking that by month’s end, I’ll
have a routine happening and will be more inclined to remember to write down
all of the details in my life in my still-to-be-made planner. Speaking of which, I probably should get busy
putting the pieces together or it won’t be ready for tomorrow morning’s
launch.

My goal is to focus on fitness and healthy diet and not on losing weight. What health goal do you have for yourself?

3 comments:

Lots of good thinking and planning. I'm not sure I'm going to have all my 2014 structures in place by tomorrow, but I kind of like to think of the season going through Epiphany, so that gives me a few more days.

A few more days is all you need. I never feel like I have all my ducks in a row by the morning of Jan 1 but I'm not going to let that cause me to delay starting. I'm printing out a weight loss chart and a weight graph. I want to create a to-do list for things I want/need to do for the week. I have a list of books to read, some for your challenge and others for my own enrichment, and movies to watch (when I'm tired of reading or just need to rest my eyes). It's going to be a good year. Hopefully it will also be a productive one.